CHAP. 111. J BAHIA TO THE CAPE. 165 



uproar ; and as the men liad enough to do to look after their 

 own safety, tliey were compelled reluctantly to leave hitn to 

 his fate. 



Since our visit the remote little community of Tristan 

 d'Acmiha has not entirely escaped political complications, such 

 as have involved many states of greater importance in their 

 own estimation. The attention of the Lords of the Admiralty 

 was for some reason or other attracted to the island, and H.M.S. 

 Sappho^ Commander Noel Digby, called at Tristan in January, 

 1875, and Captain Digliy rejDorted that at that time there were 

 fourteen families on the island, eighty-five persons in all. The 

 condition of the islanders seemed to have been much the same as 

 when we went there two years before. From Captain Digby's 

 report, it appeared to Lord Carnarvon that if the Tristan group 

 really formed part of the Cape Colony, which seemed to be the 

 case from Bishop Gray having visited it as part of his diocese, 

 the jurisdiction of the Cape Government should be recognized ; 

 and it might be well that certain limited magisterial powers 

 should be conferred upon Peter Green, and perhaps one or two 

 others, by the governor ; and he wrote to Sir Henry Barkly for 

 information and suggestions. Sir Henry Barkly replied that 

 Tristan d'Acunha had certainly been included in the letters 

 patent constituting the see of Capetown, but that on the crea- 

 tion of the bishopric of St. Helena it had been transferred to 

 that diocese, and that no proclamation or other evidence could 

 be found giving the Governor of Cape Colony special authoritj^ 

 over the Tristan group. Moreover, Sir Henry Barkly's advisers 

 reported that, in the present state of information relating to the 

 connection between Tristan d'Acunha and the Cape Colony, 

 they did not feel at liberty to recommend that magisterial pow- 

 ers should be conferred on any of the inhabitants by the Cape 

 Government. 



Lord Carnarvon then gave up the idea of attaching Tristan 

 to the Cape, and proposed that its government should be pro- 



